By MICHAEL VIRTANEN and JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press

ALBANY - After 19 years in prison, Amir Amma served his time for two nonviolent drug convictions in New York, as long as some murderers get. Now free and pursuing a college degree, he says, "Crime is not an option."

Carlie Beltran also said he put trouble behind him after a crack-cocaine and gun-possession conviction. But less than four months after his release, police say they found him carrying a loaded pistol.

Amma and Beltran were snared under New York's harsh Rockefeller drug laws, which required long sentences for possession and sale of even small amounts of drugs. They are also among the first of nearly 300 people to benefit from last year's easing of the nation's toughest drug laws. The results of that change so far are mixed.

The repeal of the Rockefeller-era drug laws a year ago was decried by conservatives as a drug-dealer-protection program for dangerous felons. At the same time, advocates of the change said it eliminates decades of injustice that tore families apart and ruined the lives of people snared in addiction, rather than a life of crime.

The landmark repeal still leads to some basic questions:

Q: What were the Rockefeller drug laws?

A: The Legislature in 1973 and then-Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, a Republican, said long, mandatory prison sentences were needed to avoid light treatment of those in a drug-related "reign of terror." Even as prosecutors attributed the laws to a steady drop in crime since then, New York City politicians sought repeals because they saw the damage to families of those convicted as if they were murderers for possessing small amounts of narcotics. The strictest provisions were removed in 2004, and the move toward treatment of addiction rather than prison was under way.

Q: What happened last year?

A: Gov. David Paterson, a Harlem Democrat, and the Legislature, led by New York City Democrats, agreed in April 2009 to further revise the Rockefeller-era laws, which were once among the most severe in the nation.

Inmates convicted of a Class B drug felony before Jan. 13, 2005, with a maximum possible term of more than three years, can be resentenced. Offenders convicted of a violent felony within the past 10 years are excluded.

Judges are to consider an inmate's participation or willingness in treatment programs and disciplinary history.

Judges can send new offenders to treatment programs instead of prison.

Revisions took effect in October.

Q: So what's happened?

A: The New York state Department of Correctional Services said new drug commitments to prison have been dropping steadily since 1992 and fell another 23 percent since the law changed in April 2009. By the end of February, judges agreed to treatment for 24 of 58 defendants indicted by the New York City special narcotics prosecutor.

Nassau County on Long Island had 140 court-ordered diversions through February, while New York County (Manhattan) had 125, according to the New York Legal Aid Society.

Q: Is New York alone?

A: A Drug Policy Alliance study showed that voters nationwide from 1996 to 2000 approved 17 of 19 ballot drug initiatives such as legalizing marijuana for medical use and diverting nonviolent convicts from prison to treatment. The study said 46 states, most through legislative votes, enacted 150 similar or related measures in the change from "get tough" to "harm reduction" approaches toward illicit drug use.

A federal study noted that there were 2,147 specialized drug courts operating nationwide at the end of 2007, up 32 percent in three years. There were 172 in New York. They include court monitoring and referral to treatment programs. The first was established in 1989.